CANARIE’s Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR) Program

CANARIE launched the DAIR pilot program in April 2011. DAIR provides small and medium-sized high-tech companies with an opportunity to speed time to market by offering an advanced R&D environment for product design, prototyping, validation and demonstration. DAIR was a great success and the results of the program are available in this press release at http://canarie.ca/templates/news/releases/2012-02-15_DAIR_Survey_en.pdf.

CANARIE intends to expand the program, and has incorporated this proposal into its mandate renewal request to the Government of Canada. In order to build the most beneficial program for SMEs, CANARIE is looking for feedback from digital entrepreneurs across the country on how best to meet their cloud-computing needs.

Tell us what’s important to you by taking this survey and provide feedback on your needs. By participating in the survey, you can win a $250 ITunes gift card!

Please read below. If you are interested in participating, respond to Tim Bissell directly (contact info at bottom).

Hi there,

I'm looking to cast some Canadian gamers for an upcoming History/Discovery style television series.

I was wondering if you would possibly know of someone who fits the criteria I am after.

The gamers I am looking for can be of any gender or age, but must be Canadian citizens (for tax and funding purposes only).

These gamers must be specifically interested in Real Time Strategy games and extremely proficient in them, perhaps they are even pro gamers in this genre or have developed these types of games. If they are not professional though, at the very least they must play them often and well, and also be into the community - posting on forums such regarding the latest RTS games and the strategies used to win in them.

What's more, our RTS gamers must also have a keen interest in actual military history. They don't need to be geniuses in the subject, but are the kind of people who would watch WW2 documentaries on History Television, read a book or comic set during real wars, and know a bunch of military terms and tactics. The ideal candidate is someone who not only plays RTS games and enjoys/knows a lot about history - but someone who sees the connections between the two and even tries to use their knowledge of history and military tactics in games (those which would allow such expression).

The gamers must also be charismatic, extroverted, yadda yadda - the kind of people who can go on camera and be themselves, not freeze up under the lights.

I can not give out a lot of details regarding the show itself, what I can say though is that it is a history documentary series which seeks to use RTS gamers to play out significant battles and illustrate various military tactics used in the modern era. The positions are of course paid, and the gamers will also get to play with some amazing high-tech military simulators.

IronManMode is a blog run by Zeke Iddon. Here's his description of the blog and its purpose: "Iron Man Mode is a comedy gaming blog in which a bunch of us blog about playing stuff like Minecraft, Syndicate, EVE etc. with only one life - once we're dead, the blog and game is over completely. It's more for fun than anything, but we're also using it to raise money for the Child's Play Charity...".